"From even before their first day of law school, Texas Tech University School of Law students have the opportunity to appreciate the importance of the estate planning area and to understand that it can be both an enjoyable and rewarding area of law in which to practice. During orientation, which takes place the week before classes start, new students participate in full-day programs centered on a particular area of practice either of their own choosing or assigned by the administration. For the 2013 entering class, I was in charge of two full-day Estate Planning Tracks with a total of aproximately thirty-five entering students.

As their legal education continues, students have additional exposure, some mandatory and some optional, to estate planning topics. In my first year required Property course, I spend several days reviewing the basic principles of intestate succession and wills. Texas Tech then requires all students to complete a four-credit introductory course entitled Wills and Trusts as a condition of graduation during their second or third year. Students desiring a more sophisticated treatment may take courses such as Estate Planning, Texas Estate Administration, Guardianship, Estate and Gift Tax, Elder Law, and Marital Property. Students may also compete for a coveted position as an editor for the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal that Texas Tech publishes.

This Article reveals my basic teaching philosophy and the general pedagogical techniques I employ to make Trusts and Estates topics both fun and relevant. I will then share with you the specific tools I use when teaching the introductory course as well as the advanced courses such as Estate Planning and Texas Estate Administration. It is my hope that you may be able to gain insight from my approach to enhance your own teaching and the experience you provide to your students."

From Northern Illinois Law Librarian Sharon Nelson, a thoughtful bibliography of articles drawing lines between mistreatment of animals and the potential for family member abuse or neglect. I have to say that I never thought about this connection before, but it does ring true for a possibly related phenomenon I observed when we were interviewing caregivers for an aging family member. If candidates were nervous around our completely benign pooches, they rarely coped well with the not-so-benign family member. Nelson sumarizes her article, titled "The Connection Between Animal Abuse and Family Violence:"

"This Selected Annotated Bibliography assembles legal and social literature that examines the link between domestic violence and animal abuse. Drawing from an ever-growing body of written works dedicated to the issue, the Bibliography presents the works that are most informative and useful to the legal community. These include case studies, current and proposed legislation, and social services guides that address the occurrence of and response to the animal cruelty-family violence correlation. In doing so, the Bibliography creates a resource that will prove helpful to a variety of legal practitioners, law makers, and professionals within the criminal justice system, and will serve as a tool to promote further understanding of the patterns of abuse that often concurrently victimize both humans and animals."

"Conflict at the end-of-life, particularly between families and healthcare providers, involves many complex factors: differing opinions surrounding a patient’s prognosis, cultural differences, moral values and religious beliefs, associated costs, internal family dynamics, and of course, legal ramifications. Bill-52 (2013): An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care, introduced in Québec's National Assembly, will have far-reaching implications for healthcare decision-making for families, healthcare providers, religious groups, and others. Here, Bill-52 is used as the backdrop to examining the often neglected stories of disputes arising between families and healthcare providers, and the communication strategies, negotiation and mediation processes which result amidst an often stressful, costly, and time-consuming ordeal. Numerous conflict resolution processes are discussed, but the Consent and Capacity Board, regulated through Ontario's Health Care Consent Act (HCCA), is the primary focus. The importance of empathy and cultural understanding is also analyzed, as well as the challenges of cross-cultural conflict, including sensitivities toward Canada's First Nations peoples."